Civil society
groups, the Protection for Okomu National Park and the local Advisory
Committee for Okomu National Park have called on the governor of Edo
State, Adams Oshiomhole, to urgently look into the numerous attacks on
the park by illegal loggers.
The petitioners say the reserved forest is facing extinction due to the activities of loggers and poachers.
The groups asked
Mr. Oshiomhole to urgently look into ‘‘illegal logging, carting away of
logs and bodily attacks on staff of the National Park situated at
Arakhuan-Udo in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State,
with the view to bringing the perpetrators to book’’.
“The park is a
conservation enclave in Edo State that is being managed by the National
Park Service of the Federal Government, under the protection of
enabling federal and state laws and several international treaties,”
the petition said.
They also stated
that they had reported attacks on the park to the state Police Command
and the State Security Service. They said both security outfits have,
however, not carried out any actions against the alleged culprits.
In a three-page
letter, jointly signed by Tony Erha, Coordinator of PONPE; Ezekiel
Benson, Secretary of LAC-Okomu; Augustine Yankee, member, LAC-Okomu,
and G.T. Williams, PONPE Community Liaison, the group said its interest
is to promote the ideals of the Okomu National Park, conserve the
environment and protect the park and the well-being of the park’s
communities and indigenes.
Stop felling the trees
The groups
specifically indicted an Ijaw youth leader in the area, Andrew Igiri,
whom they said was acting under the guise of the Western Zone of the
Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC).
“In a situation
where all the different ethnic groups (including the Ijaw) in the
communities of the park’s zone are great supporters of the park and are
members of LAC-Okomu, we wonder whose interests Mr. Igiri and his gangs
were protecting in the incident,” they said.
“Obviously the IYC does not partake or mastermind such acts.”
The groups said the logs were carted to neighbouring states through the Gelegele River.
